Puzzled after looking at the picture above? Don’t be. It’s a duck breast, cut into two, cooking in its own fat rendered from the skin.
More explanation necessary?
Since I’ve become a homebody for the next 2 months before my grad school apps are due, I decided I would report on adventures around the house and in the Mountain View/Palo Alto community as a way to keep you updated about my life. Sure it’s quieter around the suburbs. But it’s a unique challenge to find the interesting among the quotidian, the quirky among the mundane.
So what better way to start than with my kitchen endeavours. We all know this travel blog is a disguised food blog.
Here’s a dinner I cooked for my lovely housemate/landlady, S. She’s fabulous so I decided to make a nice meal to thank her for being awesome.
For cuisine, I chose French. For the main I chose fatty duck breasts with glazed peaches. Aka, magret de canard à la pêche.
The recipe came from the brilliant Mireille Guiliano. I modified it because it’s not grilling season right now (hello rain, another reason for my homebody tendencies). But it turned out perfectly too! Check out her other easy and yummy recipes.
Here’s are my mouth-watering photos to make y’all jealous! I’ll include the recipe as commentary for anybody who is interested in making this too. Note: tI don’t measure exactly. I’ve cooked enough that I don’t measure except when baking because it saves time and I don’t have to clean as many utensils. Plus, I can taste as I go along. If you must have the ingredients quantities, leave a comment and I’ll add them. But you should be able to assume how much salt to add and what seems reasonable.
You need some peaches. I used 2 and sliced them into eighths. Have as many as you want (within reason). Don’t forget to peel them or the texture will be too rough on the final plate.
Grab a fry pan, stick in some butter, honey, and 1/4c water (maybe less, you don’t want the peaches swimming in water) and throw in the peaches. Simmer until they’re soft but not overcooked. Leave them to rest.
Cook the duck. So refer to photo above. A duck breast comes with some skin that attached the 2 pieces of meat but you can really separate them into individual pieces, meaning 1 duck breast is 2 servings. While it looks big and fatty in the photo, you end up having a portion of meat about the size of a deck of cards – the size recommended, ironically, by most nutritionists. In other words, unless you’re really greedy and want a whole piece to yourself, just cut it in half. Makes it easier to cook too.
So fry pan on stove. Heat to medium. Score the duck skin in diamonds, helps the fat drain. Throw it on the heated pan, skin side down. Leave it for like 5-8 minutes (depending on thickness) until the edges look cooked but the middle is still raw. Then flip it over, heat it for about 3 minutes. The goal is to have the middle still slightly bleeding – well done means tough and chewy meat. If you don’t like bloody meat, cook it for longer. Season – meaning sprinkle salt and pepper.
Lay some paper towels on the counter and quickly (but safely, burning yourself is NOT fun) put the meat on the paper towels to drain the fat. Put the fry pan back on the stove and throw the peaches in to reheat. And yes to cover in some delicious duck juices.
I made some vegetables to accompany but this is option. What types of veges don’t matter – you can see I have a medley of different elements from what I found in the fridge. It’s just to add some greens and colorful foods to your diet. You know, a health thing. Plus maybe you can trick yourself into believing that it will make your diet more balanced after swallowing all that duck fat. Haha, yeah right.
And by the magic of blogging, voilà, here’s the final product. So plating: grab the nicest places you have.
Gently slice the duck so it’s reasonably thick (about 1 inch or 2-3 cm if you’re used to metric – which is by far the easier system to use, of course!). Put some peaches next door. And there’s dinner!
Oh and just ’cause I really like S, I made dessert too. Strawberry soup with yoghurt and chocolate dipped strawberries. Her original recipes calls for Mascarpone but I prefer greek yoghurt with 1/2 tsp of honey stirred in because I find yoghurt lighter which marries well with the strawberries.
For the dipped strawberries, wash and draw the prettiest strawberries. I slice mine in half because it’s easier for them to sit still and the chocolate to harden than when they’re whole as they tend to roll around. Chocolate everywhere it messy to clean. I put some chocolate chips (dark) into a bowl and microwaved for 30 second increments until they were melted but not burnt. Be careful, it’s a fine line. Then I lay a sheet of aluminium foil on the counter, quickly dip each strawberry in the chocolate, lay it down and finish the rest. I throw them in the fridge so the chocolate hardens quickly and they’re ready for serving.
For the soup: grab some strawberries, wash them, dry them and crush them with a fork (you can try a potato masher but I find a fork is easier). Stir in some (tiny amount) of honey and lemon juice. Let it sit for a while. It should be quite watery with some lumps of strawberries in. Yum! I only let this one stand for 1 hour but if you plan ahead you can make this even a day in advance. If you’re in a hurry, you can serve it right now too.
To serve: pour some “soup” into a pretty bowl. Add some of the yoghurt mixture from above. Arrange the chocolate strawberries. And I even added mini basil leaves for decoration – whatever makes it more appetizing – go for it.
Serve dinner hot with some red wine and engaging conversation.
This is a good meal for a special occasion because it’s so easy to make but it looks like you put a lot of effort in. Try it and please let me know your results.
Bon appétit
Anna in Wanderland 